The role of small denominations in Roma social mobility and social inclusion in a small Hungarian town

The following article explores the role of neo-Protestant churches in a small Hungarian town and their entanglement in the complex and intertwining processes of Roma social mobility and social inclusion locally. As structural processes might allow for the increased social mobility of Roma, their social inclusion locally more and more becomes reliant on local institutions which are underfunded. This gap is filled by local neo-Protestant churches in several ways. Even though they are increasingly operated by the logic of ethnic segregation, they appear as institutions that can channel various types of resources into local communities materializing in opportunities, interethnic relations, self-empowerment, mutual aid, and emotional support that ease the burdens of social mobility. Furthermore, they might tackle ethnic stigma by constructing a “pious Roma” locally, who adheres to majoritarian notions of good behaviours, thus fostering social inclusion through changed symbolic meanings. Consequently, this article shows how faith-based organizations can become local actors that mediate the contradictions of social mobility and social inclusion, but parallelly, generate their own This article was published open access under a CC BY-NC-ND licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ .